Round 1 - Yankees!

Do you remember the last time the Yankees defeated the Red Sox? How about September 28, 2008. Mike Mussina won his 20th game for the first time in his long career. Yeah, it's been a while. And though 13-6 sounds like a pretty one-sided score, it was a weird game.

REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine

* What in the name of William Malcolm Dickey was Jorgie Posada doing while trying to score in the bottom of the second inning? It sure didn't look like he was trying to score. Jorgie had a good game overall, but had this been a close game, Posada would have been the goat.

* Shades of Steven Russell Trout! How could Joba Chamberlain walk 7 in 5 innings in an important game?

* For that matter, what exactly was going on between Chamberlain and Posada? I strongly suspect that if guns were allowed on the field, the Yankees would have a roster spot available right now.

* And speaking of Joba... what exactly happens to his pitch count/innings limit/Joba Rules, when he is pitching badly and the Yankees have a 6-run lead? Maybe times like this don't count? He threw 27 pitches in the 5th inning to get his total pitch count up to 108. I just know that in September I will be thinking back to this game.

* OK, let's go to happier thoughts: I don't care what WFAN's Mike Francesa says, he can tell me all he wants till he turns blue, that Melky Cabrera is no better than a 4th outfielder. All I know is that this kid manages to get big hit after big hit.

* The Yankees batted 6-for-13 with runners in scoring position. That's how you score runs.

* I keep saying that we are going to miss Hideki Matsui when he's gone. Here is a great piece of hitting. Also- if I were Victor Martinez, I would have moved out of A-Rod's way too.

* Give Billy Traber a lot of credit. Thanks to him, the Red Sox have some semblance of a bullpen for tonight's game.

REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine

* Exactly how many of the 6 home runs hit were in the first row? You know what I'm talking about. I'm not going to count them myself, so I leave that question for others. Anyway, here is one of them.

* Ahh, John Smoltz. What was worse, (1) watching an all-time great pitcher give a performance like that, or (2) listening to Paul O'Neill constantly mispronouncing his name ("Shmoltz")?
It's a tough choice.

* I know what everyone said-- the paid attendance was 49,005, largest crowd in the new Yankee Stadium. Yet every time I looked, there were bazillions of empty seats close to the field. Can they all be in the bathroom at the same time?

* Boston has lost 11 of their last 18 games. The Yankees are 13-5 in that same span.

* Is A-Rod's recent lack of power really a story? He is homerless since July 19, for those of you who care. Meanwhile, since then he is 18-for-64, which is a .281 batting average, with 8 RBIs in 16 games. So what should he do, swing for the fences?

* Almost forgot-- the Yankees announced during the game that they acquired 26 year old Chad Gaudin from the San Diego Padres for a player to be named later. Pete Abraham has the story on that. This year he has been used as a starter, but he's had better success as a reliever.